§ Mr. Raisonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps to enable charities and similar bodies to obtain butter at reduced prices.
§ Mr. GodberYes. Under the Community regulations, member States are able to arrange for butter held in store by national intervention agencies to be sold on favourable terms for use by non-profit-making organisations. The necessary framework for introducing this scheme in the United Kingdom has been worked out with a view to taking full advantage of the benefits to which we are entitled as a member of the Community.
The Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce, which is responsible for operating disposal arrangements, will open a register of organisations which wish to take advantage of the scheme. In order to be eligible, an organisation will need to satisfy the board that it is not run for a profit. Both public sector and privately financed organisations, will be able to qualify. This will cover for example, hospitals, nursing homes, educational establishments and residential homes. To qualify an organisation will have to be supplying meals or all the provisions for meals as an integral part of the service. But it will not be eligible if the supply of meals or provisions is its prime function, unless it does this for welfare purposes.
The scheme will operate in the following way. An eligible organisation will receive a certificate of entitlement for a three-month period. The entitlement will be based upon the number of persons benefiting from the services provided by the organisation and the average per capita consumption of butter in the United Kingdom.
The certificate will enable supplies of this butter, which will have to be distinctively marked, to be obtained through ordinary trade channels. Alternatively, an organisation will be able, if it wishes, to obtain delivery in bulk direct from an intervention centre provided it takes a minimum quantity of 1 ton.
The price at which butter will be released by the board under the arrangement is about £165 a ton ex store. Pack- 134W ing, distribution and handling costs would, of course, have to be added to this price. But eligible organisations should be able to get supplies at around half the current retail price.
The board will be able to start releasing butter under this scheme on 26th November. Obviously it will take some time for those organisations buying through the distributive trade to get their initial supplies. But the benefit should soon be available to a wide range of organisations. The Government hope that eligible organisations will register with the board and take full advantage of this scheme. Further details and registration forms will be available from the board.